So here I am posting a review several weeks late AGAIN… wah, wah! (Oh wait, I started writing this ages ago and now it’s probably closer to a year later. I suck!)
Anyshits, we found ourselves yet again at what is quickly becoming our weeknight hangout… The Southgate House. This was another late starting one headlined by the very talented (and very beautiful) Catherine Feeny (http://catherinefeeny.com/).
Although we’d been to the SGH many times, this was our first experience in the upstairs Parlour. The long and slender room on the upper floor has a lot of character. The old wooden walls are highlighted with large paintings of revolutionary era hunters misbehaving in a bar. The ceiling is decorated with old light fixtures radiating a dim multi-colored film over the area. The stage is small and located directly across the room from the bar. It’s a set-up that makes sense given the dimensions of the room, but unfortunate in that the bar noise carries up to the stage area and is a major distraction to the performances.
We showed up fairly early and had the wonderful opportunity to meet Miss Feeny before the show and get our picture taken with her. (She made me promise I wouldn’t share it as she was not “ready” J.) She is such a sweet and genuine person. It probably didn’t hurt that we used our knowledge of her acquaintance with our friend Michelle Hemmer (check her out - http://michellehemmer.com/) to strike up initial conversation.
The show was an interestingly pieced together collection of artists crossing paths. Leading off was a performance by Margaret Darling of the local indie stars The Seedy Seeds (http://www.theseedyseeds.com/). I say “solo”, but she was accompanied by a percussionist who performed his duties on a plastic tub – the type you would store shit in your basement with. The set was mildly entertaining to my distant recollection. The thing that really sticks out was Darlings use of what I think was some type of an auto-harp. Certainly an instrument you don’t see every day.
Miss Darling was followed by Neutral Uke Motel (http://www.neutralukehotel.com/). A ukulele playing Neutral Milk Hotel cover band who tours around playing the “In an Aeroplane Over the Sea” album in its entirety. I was somewhat embarrassed to admit that I was completely unaware of this album’s existence before the show. The passion shown by the audience in singing along with every song sold me on obtaining it afterwards. I must say I have been disappointed in my efforts to listen to the actual CD all the way through since that night. At any rate, the musicians involved were weird and talented. One of the guys was a real life reincarnation of Groucho Marx. I spent have their set bitching to Amy about why someone would make themselves look like that and how it was only for attention. Damn if I didn’t briefly meet him after the show and found him to be the kindest of persons (I’m such a jerk). The guy was going around asking audience members to record a happy birthday wish on his video camera that he was subsequently sending to his wife back home.
Post NUM’s set, about half of the crowd took off. It’s definitely an odd occurrence when the crowd for the “headliner” is smaller than that of the supporting act. Catherine came on to what we’ll call and “intimate” crowd. The size of the crowd may have been small, however their admiration for her was clear as day. They all came to hear her beautiful voice and they certainly were rewarded. The set wasn’t acoustic by definition, but pretty close to it only featuring light accompaniment. Much of the mood was carried by the gentle and soulful guitar playing by Daniel Dixon. CF progressed through a somewhat compressed set mostly comprised of tracks from her new “People in the Hole” CD. Certainly a wonderful collection of music, but I was disappointed the set didn’t include more songs from her masterpiece “Hurricane Glass”.
The show ended quietly, but we didn’t take off just yet. I went to tell Mr. Dixon how much I enjoyed the show expecting just a courtesy “thanks man”, but getting what turned into a lengthy conversation. I even had to kind of end it so he could proceed with cleaning up his equipment. During this time, Amy was joined at the bar by Catherine. Trying not to kill that conversation, I parked myself at Amy’s opposing side and was soon joined by Daniel. He proceeded to tell me his quite interesting “struggling artist” story explaining how he was briefly staying in a tent in CF’s back yard. Wacky stuff to be sharing with a total stranger, but I was happy for the extended amusement. Shortly after, CF and DD needed to start packing to head to Louisville. So we said our goodbyes to OUR new acquaintances and headed for home.
